Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 26 Feb 2026, 16:40 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Stalybridge Station - North Side Improvements

Authority: Transpennine Trains Limited (Public body)

WorksBelow threshold
Sectors: Construction & Civil Engineering (45) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£2,000,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 4 moends 26 Aug 2027 · starts 19 Apr 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

TransPennine Express is seeking to appoint a Principal Contractor to complete the detailed design and deliver the construction works for the proposed North Side Improvements at Stalybridge Station (Grid Ref: SJ958986). The scheme focuses on upgrading the northern forecourt, improving multimodal connectivity, enhancing safety, and formalising the existing unmanaged car park.

The project has progressed to ES4 (Approval in Principle) stage design. The appointed contractor will be required to develop the design to completion, coordinate all disciplines, obtain any further technical approvals, and undertake the full construction and commissioning of the works.

CPV: Railway construction works · Siteworks · Works for complete or part construction and civil engineering work

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Transpennine Trains Limited buys Construction work for pipelines, communication and power lines, for highways, roads, airfields and railways; flatwork (CPV 4523), and who usually turns up

Transpennine Trains Limited’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Construction work for pipelines, communication and power lines, for highways, roads, airfields and railways; flatwork (CPV 4523) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerTranspennine Trains Limited · all categories
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 2 of 12 known-size awards · market: CPV 4523 · North West England (authority’s region), n=105
17%79%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in North West England (authority’s region).

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 2 of 8 known-location awards · market: CPV 4523 · North West England (authority’s region), n=116
25%45%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: CPV 4523 · North West England (authority’s region), n=16
—39 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 39 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 3 of 13 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 4523 · North West England (authority’s region), n=140
23%29%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer5 lots with bid counts · all categories
0% had one bid
The market19 lots with bid counts · CPV 4523 · North West England (authority’s region)
5% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid0% / 5%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 19 lots with published bid counts.
2–380% / 53%
Buyer: 4 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 19 lots with published bid counts.
4–620% / 21%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 19 lots with published bid counts.
7+0% / 21%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 19 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyerToo few to chart: 1 lot with estimate and award, 5 needed · all categories
The market25 lots with estimate and award · CPV 4523 · North West England (authority’s region)
32% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate32%
Market: 8 of 25 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%52%
Market: 13 of 25 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate16%
Market: 4 of 25 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 454 monthsPublished estimate£2.0m

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 45. The comparison uses that group.

Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 250 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet10% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 250 similar lots
1 bid10%
26 of 250 similar past lots received 1 bid (10%).
2–327%
67 of 250 similar past lots received 2–3 (27%).
4–628%
71 of 250 similar past lots received 4–6 (28%).
7+34%
86 of 250 similar past lots received 7+ (34%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £2.0m, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Works
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
26 Feb 2026, 16:40 GMT
Last source update
26 Feb 2026, 16:40 GMT
Authority reference
TPT626
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-017572
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Railway construction worksSiteworksWorks for complete or part construction and civil engineering work
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-065d8c Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

26 Feb 2026 → 19 Apr 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published243 days ago
    26 Feb 2026, 16:40 GMT
  2. Market engagement228 days ago
    12 Mar 2026, 23:59 GMT

    Interest to be registered no later than 12/03/2026. The next steps will be communicated with interested parties following the engagement deadline.

  3. Today
    27 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 173 days
    19 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    26 Feb 2026, 16:40 GMT
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

TransPennine Trains Ltd

Contracting authorityPublic undertaking GB-PPON: PXNX-1214-CQYL 7th Floor, Bridgewater House, 58-60 Whitworth Street, Manchester, North West, M1 6LTContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure